Hand Stretching Video Clip

[Les]

I found this short video clip demonstrating hand stretching:

http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/pages/cvt033.asp

[canadave]

ack, nooooo!!!  Not a rolling pin!  

[Les]

Well, first she did thoroughly demonstrate hand stretching, and gave a couple of good tips.  I liked the idea of holding the dough up to light to see the evenness of the stretch.  

[DKM]

Not bad, just leave out the rollingpin part and it is fine.

DKM

[canadave]

Yeah, I guess that's true.  And I suppose if doing a thin crust pizza, the rolling pin is fine.  I guess I'm just inherently anti-rolling pin

Dave

[DKM]

I basicly am as well, outside of thin crust.


DKM

[Les]

I posted that mostly because I'd been looking for someone I could watch stretch dough on their fists up close. I thought there might be other inexperienced fist-stretchers around like me .  I also liked how she held up the dough to the light to look for evenness.  I usually only feel it on my kneading surface, and am constantly finding thick spots when I thought it was all evenly stretched.

[Randy]

I posted that link a few months back Les and I was glad to see you repost it for the new people.

Randy

[DKM]

I though it looked familiar, but I didn't remember the rolling pin.

It was a good repost, anyways.

DKM

[giotto]

You ever watch the world championships for pizza handling in Italy?  The fastest and longest dough champions lay it out on a flat surface.  As far as rollers are concerned, if you visit Pyzano's in the SF bay area, you'll see some wicked pie handling and plenty of awards for great pizza.  It's no wonder, the 5 time world champion pizza thrower and captain of the USA team owns it.  Don't be surprised though if you see a roller pop up.

I use light all the time to check the thickness of the dough in between tosses.  After receiving lessons from the best though, I realize the value of saving my shoulders. So every now and then I let my family roll it out evenly without disturbing the air pockets.

But I have to admit, in Italy they'll say it is not DOC standard if you use a roller; although, they don't always adhere to their own standards when it comes to their pizza ingredients.  Now that's a loss when you don't get Buffalo Mozzarella.